WHEN Nebraska factory worker Dung Tran shoved a $365 million winning lottery ticket into his pocket last week because, he said, it “scares you,” and when Queens sales rep Jay Sung, a $41 million winner, bolted from his own news conference two weeks ago – they were right to worry.

Many lottery winners seem to inherit the winners’ curse.

In the past two years, two winners have been shot dead, one overdosed, one killed her pal in a drunken-driving crash and three others were arrested, including one for attempted murder.

This does not include the dozens of lotto winners who have endured bitter divorces, scam artists and bankruptcy.

“It’s just a tragedy – it goes against the American dream,” said Hillsborough County, Fla., Police Officer Debbie Carter, who investigated the kidnapping and murder of $20 million lotto winner Jeffery Dampier last July 26.

Already a father of three and grandfather to two, Dampier and his wife adopted two more children after his win and was known in his close-knit community for supporting those in need both financially and emotionally.

His sister-in-law Victoria Jackson and her boyfriend, Nathaniel Jackson, are accused of the shooting Dampier, 39, in the head. They pleaded not guilty on Feb. 2.

“The fact that he could help so many people with that money and it was his own relatives who killed him is just so sad,” Carter said.

Rick Camat, 31, who shared $87 million with 13 Starbucks co-workers in 2000, was shot dead by cops at a Seattle football stadium Oct. 10, 2004.

Officer Nicholus Bauer, 42, opened fire after Camat shot a 9mm pistol allegedly at a car.

“It’s just something I did not believe in my heart,” said Camat’s cousin Rechelle Asperin at the time. “He’s not violent.”

His brother, Brian Camat, 29, who was a witness, said Camat was trying to break up a fight.

“He shot once in the air to scare people away,” Brian told cops. “He didn’t aim it at anyone.”

In Cincinnati, police are still investigating the mysterious death of Virginia Metcalf Merida, 51, who was found decomposing in her palatial mansion Nov. 27.

She and her husband, Mack Metcalf, won $65.4 million in 2000; both quit their jobs to start their new life.

Metcalf, 45, who had a longtime drinking problem, died alone in 2003. Cops are waiting for toxicology reports to determine whether Merida died of a drug overdose.

Minneapolis millionaire Victoria Zell faces charges of vehicular homicide. On July 20, 2004, she crashed her SUV into a truck on the way home from a bar, killing one passenger and paralyzing another from the waist down.

Two months later and out on bail, Zell broke off a court-ordered monitoring bracelet to visit her daughter in Duluth.

A search of her house produced a small amount of methamphetamine, for which she was also charged. She was sentenced to three months’ jail and still struggles with drug addiction.

Perhaps more shocking is the country’s youngest lottery winner, Kevin Sutton, who at 19 won $3 million in 1997.

On June 26, 2004, Sutton allegedly shot friend Cristobal Lopez, 40, in the head at Sutton’s Longmont, Colo., home. Lopez survived and Sutton was charged with attempted murder. He awaits trial.

It wasn’t Sutton’s first run-in with the law since he won. In October 1998, he pleaded guilty to prohibited use of a weapon. In January 2002, he was charged with disorderly conduct after fighting in public, to which he also pleaded guilty.

Last October, Christina Goodenow, 38, won $1 million in an Oregon lottery; cops learned the ticket was bought with her dead mother-in-law’s credit card and charged her with fraud.

The most notable of lottery losers is Jack Whittaker, who until last week – when eight ham-processing plant workers in Nebraska, including Tran, won the $365 million Powerball jackpot – was the biggest lotto winner in the country, raking in $314.9 million in December 2002.

After Whittaker was arrested twice for drunken driving and hit with a sexual-harassment lawsuit, his granddaughter Brandi Bragg died of a drug overdose Dec. 20, 2004. She was 18.

Whittaker, 57, did not return calls to his home in Jumping Branch, W.Va., but his ex-wife has said she wished he hadn’t won, adding that had she known what lay ahead, “I would’ve torn up that ticket.”

In some cases, lottery winners saw their cash siphoned off by soon-to-be-ex-spouses.

Connie Parker, 74, of Melville, L.I., picked up a $25 million lotto ticket in February 2003 while shopping for a Valentine’s Day card for her husband of 16 years, Kenneth.

Three months later, Kenneth sued for divorce and half her lottery take, claiming he had given her $20 to buy the ticket. She settled with him in January for $1.8 million.

And in November 2004, then-bankrupt Queens parking attendant Juan Rodriguez, 49, won $149 million Mega Millions jackpot. That same week, his wife, Iris, filed for divorce and sued for half.

Some newly minted millionaires simply don’t know what to do with it all.

Evelyn Adams, 53, won the New Jersey lottery twice – in 1985 and 1986 – for a total $5.4 million. She now lives in a trailer after gambling and giving it away to so-called friends. In 2001, the bank foreclosed on a house she had bought with her winnings.

“Honey, I’m the type of person who would give people the shirt off my back, and that’s what happened,” she told The Post in 2004.

Words of wisdom came from bankrupt $16.2 million lotto winner Bud Post, 66, before he died of respiratory failure at his Seneca, Pa., home Jan. 15.

“Everybody dreams of winning money,” he said. “But nobody realizes the nightmares that come out of the woodwork.”

In the two weeks after Post collected the first of his 26 annual payments of $497,953.47, he spent more than $300,000. He acquired a liquor license, a lease on a Florida restaurant for his brother and sister, and a used-car lot for another brother. He also bought a twin-engine plane, though he did not have a pilot’s license.

Within three months, he was $500,000 in debt. When he died, he was living on a $450 month disability pension.

heather.gilmore@nypost.com

SCARED

Jay Sung, 31

Won: $41 million in February 2006

Then: Queens sales rep

Now: Unknown. He bolted from press conference and hasn’t been heard from since.

DIVORCED

Juan Rodriguez, 49

Won: $149 million in November 2004

Then: Queens parking attendant

Now: Divorced from ex-wife Iris, who filed for a split the week he won and got half of his payout

HEARTBROKEN

Connie Parker, 74

Won: $25 million in February 2003

Then: Married to Kenneth Parker in Melville, L.I.

Now: Divorced from Kenneth, who took $1.8 million in a settlement

BANKRUPT

Evelyn Adams, 53

Won: $5.4 million in New Jersey lottery

Then: Homemaker

Now: Lives in a trailer after gambling and giving away money to so-called friends

CURSED

Jack Whittaker, 57

Won: $314.9 million in December 2002

Then: Churchgoing factory owner in Jumping Branch, W.Va.

Now: Victim of several robberies, charged twice for drunken driving and linked to two fatal drug overdoses, including that of his 18-year-old granddaughter

DEAD

Jeffery Dampier, 39

Won: $20 million in 1996

Then: Small business owner from Tampa, Fla.

Now: Kidnapped and shot by his sister-in-law July 2005

DEAD

Rick Camat, 31

Won: $87 million with 13 others in 2000

Then: Server at Starbucks in Seattle

Now: Shot by cops after he allegedly fired a gun outside a football stadium October 2004